What's New List Serve Post Display
Below is the List Serve Post you selected to display.
newsclips -- Newsclips for April 10, 2012
Posted: 10 Apr 2012 11:43:56
ARB News Clips for April 10, 2012. This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office of Communications. You may need to sign in or register with individual websites to view some of the following news articles. AIR POLLUTION Toxic products in California nail salons under renewed scrutiny. As the manager of a nail salon in Brea, Phuoc Dam tries to buy toxic-free nail polish. He makes sure the salon has fresh air and that his workers wear gloves when necessary. Despite his efforts, Dam said he still worries about the long-term effects of the nail products on his staff. His wife, one of the salon's manicurists, has recurring headaches and dizziness. "I am really concerned about the health of all the people who work in the salon, and my wife especially," said Dam, 58, a Vietnamese immigrant who has been in the business for 25 years. Posted. http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-health-nail-salons-20120410,0,3115837.story Roadshow: How Air Resources Board helped clear things up. Q How did the California Air Resources Board get so much power over the economy, and what scientific evidence or analysis is there that a 75 percent reduction in smog-forming emissions by 2025 is justified? The last few times I've been to Los Angeles, the air has been amazingly clean compared with what it was like when I was a kid. How far does the air board want to go before it declares victory? Posted. http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadshow/ci_20356577/roadshow-how-air-resources-board-helped-clear-things?source=rss http://www.insidebayarea.com/traffic/ci_20356578/roadshow-how-air-resources-board-helped-clear-things?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_20356577/roadshow-how-air-resources-board-helped-clear-things Lush Walls Rise to Fight a Blanket of Pollution. “We must cultivate our garden,” Voltaire famously wrote at the end of “Candide,” but even he could not have imagined this: a towering arch of 50,000 plants rising over a traffic-clogged avenue in a metropolis once called “Mexsicko City” because of its pollution. The vertical garden aims to scrub away both the filth and the image. One of three eco-sculptures installed across the city by a nonprofit called VerdMX, the arch is both art and oxygenator. It catches the eye. And it also helps clean the air. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/world/americas/vertical-gardens-in-mexico-a-symbol-of-progress.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=air%20pollution&st=cse CLIMATE CHANGE New science reveals agriculture’s true climate impact. When I examined the reasons agriculture often gets a pass in climate negotiations recently, I pointed to the fact that precise measurement of the climate impact of many industrial farming practices remains difficult and controversial. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. The effect of excess fertilizer on our waterways gets much more attention than it does when it enters the air. And for good reason. It’s toxic to consume nitrates in your drinking water. We’re learning that agricultural overuse of fertilizer has contaminated the drinking water of whole regions of California. Meanwhile, nitrogen that runs into the ocean causes oxygen-depleted “dead zones” around the world. The dead zone in our own Gulf Of Mexico (measured every summer) keeps getting larger — last year’s was the size of New Jersey. Posted. http://grist.org/climate-change/new-science-reveals-agricultures-true-climate-impact/ Q. Will climate change affect the incidence of diseases and medical conditions? A. Health experts say that global warming is already causing more deaths in many regions of the world. There is increasing evidence of lives being lost both directly, to causes like heart and respiratory ills, and indirectly, as the animal vectors of disease spread to newly warmer areas, according to a review article in the journal Nature in 2005. While no specific weather event can be directly linked to warming caused by greenhouse gases, the authors cited a two-week heat spell in Europe in the summer of 2003 that led to 22,000 to 45,000 heat-related deaths. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/science/is-climate-change-resulting-in-higher-rates-of-illness.html?scp=2&sq=climate%20change&st=cse Some plants in S.J. not so green. Power plants and landfills are the largest single sources of greenhouse gas emissions in San Joaquin County, recently released data shows. The new information allows the public to learn, for the first time, which local facilities are having the greatest impact on global climate change. For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has publicly identified facilities that create traditional pollution in cities across the nation. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120410/A_NEWS/204100316&cid=sitesearch DIESEL EMISSIONS Truckers are delivering better fuel efficiency. Diesel prices are at their highest level in nearly four years, topping $4 a gallon, but trucking company executive Fred Johring is taking it in stride. Johring's Golden State Express has bought low-emission, fuel-efficient diesel and natural gas rigs to comply with a clean-truck mandate at Southern California's twin ports — with the fortunate side effect of easing the pain of high-priced diesel. "We went from having one of the oldest local fleets to one of the newest," said Johring, whose Rancho Dominguez company sends trucks mainly on short-haul trips to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. "We have been somewhat insulated from the changing diesel prices." Posted. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-diesel-trucking-20120410,0,1026758.story FUELS Coal exports surge to highest level since 1991. Government data show U.S. coal exports reached their highest level in two decades last year as strong overseas demand offered an outlet for a fuel that's falling from favor at home. U.S. Department of Energy data analyzed by The Associated Press reveal that coal exports topped 107 million tons of fuel worth almost $16 billion in 2011. That's the highest level since 1991, and more than double the export volume from 2006. Much of the increase went to slake the thirst of power-hungry markets in Asia, where rapid development has sparked what mining company Peabody Energy calls a "global coal super cycle" that heralds renewed interest in the fuel. Posted. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEPo52y3iAhPhyDU_Ir5N3pz6QZA?docId=b1e41839ca5f47e5a39e44aec019c633 AP Newsbreak: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/04/10/2794519/coal-exports-surge-to-highest.html#storylink=misearch http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/10/2151484/coal-exports-surge-to-highest.html http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/04/10/national/a075647D83.DTL Study Questions Natural Gas's Environmental Benefits. As U.S. lawmakers promote natural gas as a way to reduce air pollution, a scientific study published this week questions the benefits of the fuel when used to power vehicles and generate electricity. The study authors said methane leaks from the production and transportation of natural gas should be studied in greater detail before the U.S. adopts any major policy shifts. The study, co-written by scientists at several universities and the environmental group Environmental Defense Fund, wades into an increasingly murky area of energy research. In it, scientists said the production of natural gas results in methane leaking into the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change and limits the environmental benefits of natural gas. Posted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577334013970875438.html?KEYWORDS=air+pollution GREEN ENERGY Salazar speaks on energy, water, conservation. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is in Colorado to discuss energy, water and conservation in the West. Salazar is scheduled to speak Monday evening at Colorado College, where students have been studying how to preserve the health of the Colorado River Basin. Salazar is a graduate of Colorado College. The Colorado River system provides municipal water for more than 30 million people in Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, and it also benefits about 6 million Mexicans. Posted. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/04/09/state/n131544D71.DTL http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/apr/09/salazar-speaks-on-energy-water-conservation/ OPINION The Right Flames the Volt. It was Thursday morning and several dozen owners of the new Chevrolet Volt had gathered at a restaurant overlooking the East River. Across town, the New York International Auto Show was in full swing. The Volt, of course, is the innovative electric car from General Motors, and G.M. was using the occasion of the auto show to meet with Volt owners. Outside, a row of sporty Volts gleamed in the bright sun. On the market for a little more than a year, the Volt is a different kind of hybrid, containing both a 400-pound battery and a 9.3 gallon gas tank. The battery gets around 40 miles per charge, but “range anxiety” isn’t the problem that it is for owners of a purely electric car. When the Volt’s battery runs out of juice, the car shifts to gasoline. It is really quite ingenious. Posted. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/07/opinion/nocera-the-right-flames-the-volt.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=volt&st=cse SHANNON GROVE: California legislature should keep an open mind on climate change policy. A few weeks ago I had the great privilege of hosting the Honorable Christopher Monckton, one of the world's leading man-made climate change skeptics, at a legislative hearing at the state Capitol as well as at community events in Sacramento and Bakersfield. Monckton is a former advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and was among the first to advise her about the issue of global warming caused by fossil-fuel related emissions. While Thatcher was originally outspoken in warning of the dangers of global warming, she eventually saw the flaws in climate change research and orthodoxy and came to question its main scientific assumptions due in part to Monckton's influence. Posted. http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/politics/local/x1322082433/SHANNON-GROVE-California-legislature-should-keep-an-open-mind-on-climate-change-policy Climate change threatens all of civilization. Isn't it interesting that the Arab awakening began in Tunisia with a fruit vendor who was harassed by police for not having a permit to sell food — just as world food prices hit record highs? And that it began in Syria with farmers who were demanding the right to buy and sell land near the border, without having to get permission from corrupt security officials? And that it was spurred on in Yemen — the first country in the world expected to run out of water — by a list of grievances including that top officials were digging water wells in their own back yards just as the government was supposed to be preventing such wildcatting? Posted. http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/09/2150787/climate-change-threatens-all-of.html BLOGS On Our Radar: Gas, Gas and More Gas. With a mild winter in much of the country having tamped down gas demand and with production of natural gas thriving due to the success of hydraulic fracturing technology, a.k.a. “fracking,” the country is running out of storage space and as a result some producers are slowing down, the Associated Press reports. But just as the market seems saturated, and the Energy Department reports that prices are extremely low, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management has issued new rules that will allow for another 3,600 wells in eastern Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Posted. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/on-our-radar-gas-gas-and-more-gas/